: 1 :
First day of class? Done. And it went quite well...I think. It's sometimes a bit hard to gauge these things, as I suspect my enthusiasm for the content might blind me a bit to students' determined lack of enthusiasm. That being said, I know what a bad class feels like (as any teacher does) and this wasn't it. I had planned to start the class off with a discussion question, which is always a bit of a risk because most students don't like talking right off the bat (unless you're me, in which case you are very determined to make a good first impression on the professor). But then on my drive down, I was chatting with my sister, and she mentioned an activity that went along the lines of "draw the ideal communicator." I decided instead to lead with this--because markers, oversized-paper, and small groups are rarely a bad idea--and it mostly worked.
The "introduce yourself instead of me doing the roll call" bit worked. And we shall see how the "hand out the syllabus at the end of class" deal goes. The next class will give me a better idea.
: 2 :
Speaking of chatting with my sister, sometimes it's so surreal that we just chat chat chat with each other and she lives half a world away in Scotland. Just to remind you, we use the app called Kakao, which allows us to give each other 40 second voice messages. We stack these voice messages up into a little monologue, and then the other person responds. Now that school has started up again, I'm happy that we get to resume a more consistent pattern of talking to each other during my commute. Makes the 70 miles go so much faster.
: 3 :
Also making the commute faster? Podcasts.
Oh, podcasts. I've gotten hooked on "Snap Judgement" although I know better than to listen on my way to school because sometimes the stories are emotional. For the drive down, I mostly stick to "Planet Money." I never cry over economics.
: 4 :
I did have one misstep during the day. My first class has 24 students in it, and my 2nd class has 12. So I mentioned during my first class that it would be fabulous if any of them wanted to move into the smaller class, helping to even the numbers out a bit.
Right after class, a student came up to me and said, "Is it okay if I take your 1:30 class?" I was enthusiastic about the idea, and joked that he wouldn't need to come to the 1:30 class that day, assuming that he had been in my noon class. He looked at me funny--I thought perhaps he thought my joke was lame--and went on his way to the registrar.
At the end of the day as I was looking over my roster, I figured out that the kid had not been in my noon class, and had probably been waiting for my first class to end before coming in to talk with me. No wonder he thought it was weird that I happily suggested he skip the first day of class.
Sometimes I'm an idiot.
: 5 :
A conversation between Jules and her cousin Toby, as relayed to me by Sarah:
Jules: When we grow up, we'll live by each other, right Toby?
Toby: Oh yes!
Jules: And we'll share each other's kids, right?
Toby: Yep.
I'm glad to know that what we have happening here on the Family Farm seems like a good idea to them.
: 6 :
Last month we had a ton of rain, and this happened:
No, blue tarps and tires didn't fall from the sky. Rather, a mudslide off our back porch took out a tree stump and almost one of the foot bridges that overlooks the creek. Fortunately, my dad got some straw on the slide and hopefully this spring/summer we'll get some better ground cover in there to keep the land from washing away. Also fortunately, we are still a good 15 feet from this edge, and so we're not really worried about our house falling down the hill.
Now if the slide had happened on one of the other sides? Well, then, we'd be racing to get stuff out of our house.
: 7 :
I've been looking at flights this week because....
...we're going back to Disney World!
Oh, I am SO EXCITED. We're going in July when it'll be ridiculously hot but who cares because we're Where Dreams Come True. The plan is to spend a couple weeks down there, doing the Disney thing, but also doing the west coast beach thing. I do love Florida's west coast beaches. Andrea used to live there, and I was lucky enough to visit her and her local beaches. Love at first sight.
If we were clever and creative parents then we'd surprise the girls with the trip. Alas, we are not. Plus, we suggested they sell their unused toys at a garage sale this spring in order to save money for the trip. So, no surprise.
No matter. They'll have the fun of looking forward to the trip.
I know I am.
Have a great weekend!
{More Quick Takes can be found here.}
